Neil McGee insists the enjoyment has not been drained out of playing for Donegal after a taxing period since they won the 2012 All-Ireland.

Last year Donegal suffered League relegation as well as surrendering their Ulster title to Monaghan and exiting the Championship with a whimper against Mayo at the quarter-final stage.

Although they won promotion back to Division Two this spring, they enter this Sunday’s Championship opener against Derry under a cloud with Monaghan having beaten them decisively in the Dvision Two final and a number of players quit the squad afterwards, chief among them Mark McHugh, inset.

It appears to be a far cry from the first two years of Jim McGuinness’s tenure when Donegal were on an upward spiral on a continual basis.

“We would not be doing it if we were not enjoying it,” said McGee.

“It is a great environment to be in, it always has been.

“Mark obviously was not enjoying it, he is studying and it was not going well for him but you have to respect him.

"I think he did the right thing for himself and obviously it will affect the team because he was a great player.”

With all the razzmatazz and attention that goes with being All-Ireland champions, the difference in Donegal’s lead in to this year’s Championship compared to 12 months ago could hardly be more stark.

“Last year we were in the spotlight a lot more, we seemed to be on the box every week during the League and this year we have largely gone under the radar apart from the final but obviously we have hit the headlines again for the wrong reasons,” said McGee.

“We wanted to keep things quiet as much as we could, but there was pressure being All-Ireland champions and there was probably a bit of a hangover. You think at the time we were alright and it would not affect us, but looking back it probably did. It is only natural.”

It was clear Donegal were well short of their best in last year’s defeat to Mayo though it wasn’t apparent to McGee before the game.

He said: “The way Jim is going into every game, he has you thinking you are going to win and we were no different last year. We thought we were going to beat Mayo but obviously we got off to a terrible start and we never recovered from it.”

Donegal enter this Sunday’s game as slight outsiders, with Derry 10/11 to see them off after excelling in Division One this year, with the obvious exception of the League final loss to Dublin.

McGee said: “They have had tougher games, more competitive games. Division Two was very competitive too but compared to playing Cork, Dublin and Kerry, they did really well and they will be confident going into this and they will probably go into this as favourites, whereas at the start of the year we would have been seen as favourites.

“We are being written off, especially within our own county which is a bit surprising. People are writing us off and that we are beaten already. There is a long way to go.”